P

Symposium 1 “East Asian Community and Intercultural Studies”

anelistThe Regional Networks ofthe East Asian World:
On the Historical Dynamism ofAsian Perspectives as seen from
Ryu-kyu-/Okinawa
Takeshi HAMASHITA
Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University(Translation by Mark WINCHESTER, Hitotsubashi University)

Introduction – The Re-emergence of the‘Local’ in Globalization

local networks themselves, while loose connections areoften emphasized, it cannot be denied that these informal and non-institutional connections are promoted

The rapid progression of globalization strongly de-

everywhere as an unavoidable ‘force’. In addition to

mands a reconsideration of theories of Asia that havethis, regional units such as oceans and cities – units thatbeen developed through a perspective of the unilinear

mutually connect and configure regional space – haveprogression of world development. It demands recon-

been confirmed once again as having a tremendous in-sideration of theories of region too, in which everything

fluence and impact on human life. The regional dy-

from ‘the world’ to ‘the local’ has been hierarchicallynamism that globalization has brought about not only

sequenced. As challenges occur ever more frequently onbrings into question the challenge of how we understanda global scale, a new role for global perspectives on lo-

Asia, but also requires that we address how we might

cality and region, as well as the formation of a global

conceive Asian regional networks anew in the future.

regional subjectivity becomes a pressing concern. In
current globalization, all regional space has become aconnective unit mutually configuring annular relation-

1. Asia in a Global Age

ships, not according to a top-down hierarchy or scale,

The opening and expansion of region as expressed

but formed as a series of diversified networks. As for theunder the term internationalization and ‘worlding’31The Regional Networks of the East Asian World: On the Historical Dynamism of Asian Perspectives as seen from Ryu-kyu-/Okinawa(sekai-ka) has changed significantly under globalization.

whole and regional relationships are represented as mu-

Both internationalization and ‘worlding’ are, generally

tual multi-faceted networks without relationships of hi-

speaking, perspectives that have the state at heart. In

erarchy or scale. Furthermore, as units which make up

contrast, one of the most significant characteristics ofregional space, ‘oceans’ and ‘cities’, as regional space

globalization is the regionalization of the state. How-

which has not directly related to the state until now, canever, changes to the order of regional space have not justbe said to have come to exercise a tremendous role andmeant the replacement of an order of region, with the

influence on human life. In other words, the major char-state at its center, with one that consists of the global

acteristic of this regional linkage is not just that global-

world. The regional dynamism of the global has placed

ization has increased the size of the world to a global

all manner of regional space, beginning with that of thescale, but that it has shown us new combinations ofstate, into an equal position.

inter-regional relations as expressed through the direct

The traditional world system organized the world

linking of the local and the global. Existing states havearound the state and, in particular, the territorial state as

become one form of layered and shared regional space.

a basic form of the modern state through which regions

At the same time, it should be noted that, when thinking

were then arranged hierarchically. Spatial order was or-about any kind of regional space, the proximity of theganized through a process of serialization ordering re-global as a dynamic has to be considered.

gional space along the vertical axis of a hierarchicalrelationship. The regional or ‘global’ had, until now,
been understood within the framework of previous international relations. In other words, the world was con-

2. America’s ‘de-Europeanization’and Asian Identity

sidered to be at the top of the pile, followed by large

America today is attempting to globalize throughregions such as the continents of Asia, Africa and Amer-‘de-Europeanizing’ its own identity, particularly in theica, then came the territorial state, followed by subordi-

Pacific. For instance, in historical studies there is anate regions within it to whom ‘regional policy’ wasmovement today that emphasizes America’s ‘global his-

aimed at, and then finally the ‘local’ as the terminal pointtory’ through illustrating how both the North and Southin this sequence.

American continent lay at the heart of world history inIn the case of Japanese history, local-ness has been

its position separating the Atlantic and Pacific. These

explained in the form of ‘local history’ (jikata-shi).

discussions attempt to theorize Asia through America’s

Moreover, keeping the world as the highest level in theseso-called Pacific experience. When we think of Asia, or

arrangements, in regional relations that converge on thethe near future of Asia, this direction in thought contains

state notions of the local and the indigenous have been

within it the possibility of reexamining a wide variety

emphasized and policies attempted in the United Na-of contexts with regard to Pacific regional relationships.

tions and elsewhere have focused on local relations fromTo put this slightly differently, when we attempt to the-below. However, even despite this, there had been no

orize East Asia, for example, we should not take Eastchange in the basic hierarchy of relations. In contrast to

Asia out of context and move to divide its interior into

this, under contemporary globalization, all regional

analyzable segments, but look at the Asia enveloped

space has become a one unit that makes up an annularwithin East Asia through a perspective that straddles the32

Takeshi HAMASHITA

Pacific from the end of the nineteenth century to today.

Translations such as this have attracted many readers

Furthermore, it certainly has not been the case that,and the phenomenon of new illustrated and descriptive

when we think about Asia, the idea that Asia can only

editions continuously appearing has not let up. There are

be thought about in the context of the world of the global

already more than six different translations and second-

ocean has disseminated as widely as we might like toary texts on The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Need-

think.

less to say, this book considered Japan to be a ‘different
culture’ in the context of the postwar United States’ occupation and governance of Japan, and expressed this

3. China’s ‘De-Asianization’ and Theories ofJapanese Culture via America

perspective on cross-cultural understanding through the

As globalization increases exponentially, China has

symbolic argument of the book was that, against themethodology of psychological analysis. One particularly

sought to ‘de-Asianize’ and has deepened multi-faceted‘culture of guilt’ that could be observed in Europe, Japanregional connections with South East Asia and the coun-

had a ‘culture of shame’ and that each was fundamen-

tries of Central Asia, while all the while taking thetally different. The book has been read as a representa-

United States as its major trading partner. This phenom-

tive work of the ‘theories of Japanese culture’ genre andenon is not limited to international relations, but can also

is read around the world even today.

be seen to be influencing civilian culture as well. For

It must be said that the contemporary efforts of Chi-

example, up until today, whenever people spoke of lit-

nese intellectuals to understand Japan through this ana-

erature by expatriate Chinese, it was always that of ex-

lytical method of ‘cross-cultural understanding’ ispatriates in Malaysia or Singapore that was mentioned.

different from the cultural theories of the influence ofToday, however, it is becoming more common to men-

Chinese culture on East Asia that we have seen before.

tion the expatriate Chinese literature of America. In re-

Incidentally, this book is the first book in a three volume

gard to the contemporary Chinese understanding of

illustrated series called, ‘Understanding Japan’

Japan too, theories of Japan and Japanese society that

(Liǎojiě rìběn) of which the other two volumes are Chi-

have entered China through the mediation of the United

tao Tai’s Rìběn lùn (‘On Japan’) and Yakumo Koizumi

States have also been on the rise.

(the Greek-Irish, Lafcadio Hearn)’s Japan and the

To give one example, we might offer the continuous work of intellectuals like Chuang Xichang, who firsttranslated Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and theJapanese (translated by Min Yan). Intellectuals that
Ko- jiro Yoshikawa recommended as important for un-

Sword of which a number of different translations havederstanding Japanese culture, such as Zouren Zhou’s Nihonjin-ron (Theories on the Japanese) and Inazo-

appeared since. As a method for understanding Japan,

Nitobe’s Bushido- have also been published. The intro-

the postwar American anthropologist, Ruth Benedict’s

duction of these kinds of theories of Japanese culture

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword was translated as,
Júhu-a yǔ da-o: rìběn wénhuà de zhu- móshì (ed. Xichang‘via the United States’ by Chinese intellectuals, of which
the publication of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword

Zhuang, trans Zhimin Sun, Xiaohe Ma and Lisheng Zhu,

proved to be a catalyst for, is probably the first time such

Beijing: Jiuzhou Press, 2005) containing many extra il-

a phenomenon has occurred in China’s history.

lustrations and photographs and it became a bestseller.

33

The Regional Networks of the East Asian World: On the Historical Dynamism of Asian Perspectives as seen from Ryu-kyu-/Okinawa

4. The Formation of a New ‘Asian Regional Subject’:
The Pacific/Indian Ocean Coastal Cities Network

tionship to them. They consider common themes andchallenges, competitive challenges and all sorts of pointsof negotiation. For instance, they might discuss the con-

Globalization has liquefied previous hierarchicalstruction of skyscrapers in coastal cities, or issues con-regional relationships through the concept of the local

cerning the environment, such as water reserves. It is a

at its core and, through incorporating the state into its

framework through which global scale issues are ad-

regional dynamism; the regional subjectivity of Asia has

dressed through city coalition. Of course, it could be said

begun to change. If we take the perspective of oceanicthat this Baltic coastal city cooperation illustrated by

Asia from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, we can see

something like the Hanseatic League represents a longthe emergence of the coastal cities as major subjective

tradition of trading and cultural networks that date backactors in the region. These various networks formed byto the Middle Ages, and that what is happening today iscoastal cities spread out across the sea will no doubt

the globalization of these networks. In this sense, it isfrom now on be required to form regional subjective ties

an important example of how coalition and cooperationof socio-cultural opportunity, rather than just politicaltakes place on issues that are both global and at the sameor economical. The dynamism of this new Asian re-time local in Asia and East Asia.

gional subjectivity that emerges through the connectionof coastal cities at its base overlaps exactly with contemporary challenges in the global world. Historicallyspeaking, the relationship between the Canton region

5. The Regional Networks of Asian
Perspectives from Ryu-kyu-/Okinawa

and the United States has existed since the seventeenth

Even if we limit ourselves to intellectual debate

century. The regional name Canton has a genealogy inafter the late nineteenth century, the Asian perspectives
coming from Ryu- kyu- /Okinawa have encompassed his-which it was named for all sorts of reasons by states suchdiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland,

torical Asian perspectives from over five hundred years
in around just a hundred and fifty years of Ryu- kyu-

Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jer-an/Okinawan history over five generations. For exam-

sey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Vir-ple, 1) Okinawan traditional society and Japaneseginia and Wisconsin, and Canton emerged as a city thatsymbolized both China and Asia on the other side of thenationalism as viewed since the Meiji Restoration, 2)
the Ryu- kyu- Shobun (procedure/dismantlement) and in-

Pacific.

ternational relations with Japan and Qing China, 3)

as Arkansas, Connecticut, Dakota, Georgia, Illinois, In-lenges of these networks of coastal cities in the

Asia’s trade networks and the relationship between the
Ryu- kyu- Kingdom and the Ming and Qing dynasties, 4)Moreover, if we are to consider the potential chalPacific/Indian Ocean region seriously, then the UBC:

The postwar United States and Okinawa/Japan, 5) Intel-

Union of Baltic Cities also exists as an oft-quoted his-

lectual exchange with the United States and 6) Foreign

torical example. This network is one of the mechanisms

migration and the consciousness of being uchinanchu

of the European Union in which a hundred and five
Baltic coastal cities have qualified to participate and(Okinawan). These different themes also represent thechanges to Ryu-kyu-an/Okinawan history over a five hun-gather to debate specific themes according to their rela-dred, hundred and fifty and fifty year timespan, how-34

Takeshi HAMASHITA

Against the tendency in Ryu- kyu- an/Okinawan re-ever, in recent years we have seen a deepening of ourunderstanding of Ryu- kyu- an research and the era of thesearch to view Okinawa in relation to each of its nego-

Ryu- kyu- Kingdom has come to occupy a central place intiating partners, or to examine differences in governingthat understanding. This is closely related to Okinawan

regimes from the Qing to Japan, or then the Unitedidentity. Against the fact that Okinawa is often posi-States and Japan once again, the view that it is impossible to classify Ryu- kyu- an/Okinawan history according

tioned and debated about within the context of foreigncountries such as Japan and the United States due to its
governance switching between these two countries, re-to changes in upper governing bodies has developed apowerful incentive to reveal the Ryu- kyu- an/Okinawan

search into the Ryu- kyu- Kingdom has taken the sea as aworld has a unified whole in itself and develop a oceanic

key point of reference and emphasizes the networked
identity of Ryu- kyu- /Okinawa spreading out far into

vision for the region. In this sense, Okinawan researchthat is carried out through the perspective of the Ryu-kyu-

South East Asia. Similarly, this Ryu- kyu- Kingdom re-Kingdom poses new challenges both methodologicallysearch has proposed a perspective in which Asia can be

and for the actual situation in the contemporary object

considered in relation to both Japan, and, to an extent

of that research.

previously unattempted, in relation to China. However,
not only has this research focused upon the relationship

6. In the Footprints of the
GARIOA Exchange Studentsof the Ryu- kyu- Kingdom, which had existed as a tributary state for five hundred years, with China, it has also
observed how the Ryu- kyu- Kingdom created multi-

One further thing I want to focus on is the presence

faceted networks throughout East and South East Asia

of Okinawan and Asian perspectives that appeared

and how Ryu- kyu- traders developed long-distance trade

among postwar Okinawan intellectuals through the me-

and exchange routes throughout the region.
It has shown how Ryu- kyu- /Okinawa was a kind of

diating factor of the United States. This involves twogenerations of Okinawan intellectuals, and all of the

networked or regional world in itself. Indeed, the Ryukyu- Kingdom was a tributary state in which diplomaticof historically annular Asian perspective from Ryu- kyu- /tributes were sent to China from the Ryu- kyu- govern-

Okinawa that is making a reappearance today. I want toment in Shuri. However, at the same time, it was also

think about the historical characteristics of this issue

sovereign in its own right, itself receiving tributary

through taking up the ‘Preface’ to the book, GARIOA
Ryu- gakusei no Ashiato [The Footprints of Government

complex issues covered above interact and form a kind

goods from the surrounding Miyako and Yaeyama islands. This kind of Ryu-kyu- Kingdom historical perspec-

Appropriation for Relief in an Occupied Area Exchange

tive is not just limited to issues of historical

Students] published in 2008 by the GARIOA Fullbrightconsciousness or developing a new understanding of

Okinawa Alumni Association. The book concerns intel-

Okinawa. Rather, through emphasizing Okinawa’s net-

lectuals who travelled on exchanges to the United States

worked constitution, it’s oceanic character, and its ex-from postwar Okinawa as so-called ‘Government Ap-

pansion into the wider Asian world; this research has

propriation for Relief in an Occupied Area Exchange

structurally clarified Okinawa’s internal character as

Students’.

well.

35

The Regional Networks of the East Asian World: On the Historical Dynamism of Asian Perspectives as seen from Ryu-kyu-/Okinawa

Just as with other occupied territories such as Westther way to educational advancement, but they wereGermany and Japan, the US Congress spent Gov-

all similar in their sharing the common experienceernment and Relief in Occupied Area funds in orderto support the residents of the Ryu- kyu- archipelago.

of war and often employment in the US Army bases
on Okinawa.

These funds were used for a variety of programs
ensuring commercial stability, economic infrastruc-

According to the ‘Okinawa Scholarship Roster forture and the promotion of education. They were

US Government Aid’ published by the Okinawan

first made available in 1947 and renewed every

Alumni Association in 2001, the GARIOA ex-

year for ten years. The US government also usedchange students from Okinawa consisted of only

these funds to send exchange students to the United

two people in the first year of the program in 1949.

States from Okinawa. Okinawa effectively re-

But in 1950 there were fifty-three, and as the pro-mained under US military occupation for twenty

gram was carried out annually the numbers grew

years after the 1952 Peace Treaty with Japan fromand in the last year of the program, 1970, a total ofwhich Japan regained its independence. During thisnine hundred (or a thousand and forty five students

time, despite the fact that the name of this govern-

if we include multiple exchanges) travelled on thesement spending has changed, the exchange students

scholarships. Of course, within that number are in-from Okinawa still relied on scholarship funds fromcluded around twenty students from the Amami Is-

the US Army and thus can be regarded as ‘GAR-

lands which were reverted to Japan in December

IOA Exchange Students’.

1953, however, even if compared to the seven thou-

In 1945 the US occupation army of Okinawa grad-students that had travelled to the United States fromually began to embark upon the promotion of

the Japanese mainland recorded in 2008, it is clear

higher education in Okinawa. In the second year ofthat the number of exchange students who travelled

the occupation, the authorities used the field campfrom Okinawa was considerable.

sand two hundred GARIOA Fulbright exchange

in what is now Uruma city and opened an educa-

36

tional school with the purpose of training school

The various majors chosen by the exchange stu-teachers and a foreign language school that would

dents ranged widely to include the humanities, thepool English language educational materials. Withsocial and natural sciences, law, agriculture, engi-

these two schools as its foundation the Ryu- kyu-

neering and medicine and the opportunity to change

University was established on the remains of Shuri

majors was completely open. As to the result of

castle in 1950 and this same year so-called Nichi
Ryu- (exchange to Japan) progression to universities

their studies, as far as can be known accurately,around fifty-eight students were awarded the high-on the Japanese mainland was recognized, as was

est doctorate degrees. This number is both eye

exchange from Okinawa to the United States, socalled Bei-Ryu- (exchange to America). The young

opening and illustrative of the ability and effort put
into achieving these kinds of results on behalf of

Okinawan elite, which had a burning desire to learn

the exchange students and commends their perse-

at this time in Okinawa’s postwar history, chose ei-verance. It need not be said that many of these newTakeshi HAMASHITA

PhDs had also gained either undergraduate or mas-

we can finally begin to start talking about an Asian way

ters degrees at universities in the United States andof knowledge.

Japan.

Conclusion

From this account, we can see how postwar Okinawan intellectuals crossed the Pacific and built up a di-Asia has come to be talked about as something

rect connection to American academic culture as well as

spanning the Pacific, and the same is true for both Chinabegan to debate Asia from an American perspective.

and Japan. What this phenomenon means is that, for the

One more typical example of this perspective cantime being, thinking across the Pacific will derive thebe seen in the recent publication of the International

context from which the status of Asia will be debated.

Journal of Okinawan Studies (Kazuyuki Tomiyama, Ed-

This challenge of the ‘Pacific’ forces us to realize thatitor-in-Chief, Vol.1(1) March, 2010, Kenkyusha). Also,

all history, politics, economics, societies and culture

work such as Gary Y. Okimoto’s ‘Okinawan Studies and
Its Interventions’, Nishizato Kiko- ’s ‘Rethinking Sino-

since the seventeenth century have consisted of a Pacificexperience and this perspective is also extremely signif-

Ryu- kyu- an-Japanese Relations in the Ming-Qing Successive Period: With a Focus on the Ryu- kyu- Kingdom’s

icant for Japan.

Tributary Problems’, Iyori Tsutomu’s ‘Fiction and Reality in Ryu-kyu- Ritual’, Gregory Smits’ ‘Romanticizing

within the context of postwar American Asia policy,
have had a huge influence of the formation of an intel-

the Ryukyu Past: Origins of the Myth of Ryukyuan Paci-

lectual class in Asia, not only just politically or econom-

Asian Studies, which have until now advanced

fism’, and Joyce N. Chinen’s ‘Okinawan Labor and Po-

ically, but also many connections and new turning points

litical Activists in Hawai’i’ can all be said to be based

can be observed within the realm of culture too. The in-upon a vision of annular and myriad Asian perspectives
in both time and space originating with Ryu- kyu- /Oki-vestigation of trans-Pacific relationships will no doubt

nawa.

continue to shape the near future of Asia, and in particular East Asia. One example of how the near future of

Asia is now debated across the Pacific and Indian

Asia will be reshaped will surely be to see how an al-

oceans. Asia is also debated through the network ofliance of coastal cities around the Pacific might eventu-

coastal cities in the region. Even with regard to Sino-ally be conceived.

Japanese relations, this will now have to be debatedthrough the coastal cities of the Pacific Ocean and theentire ring of the China Sea. What this means is that, inthinking about the regional dynamism of Asia, the element of the Pacific Ocean is an essential part of thisstory, as is the influence of the Indian Ocean. In traversing the Asian perspectives that are annulated through the
Asian seas and emanate from Ryu- kyu- /Okinawa, and byvisiting the process through which contemporary Okinawan intellectuals are synthesizing these perspectives,

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